A Test of Integrity
by Twenty-Two Cents
Summary: Clockwork decides to check up on Danny during a school trip, and gives him a little test he won't forget.


**This is a one-shot fanfic I thought of during a trip to the aquarium as my friends and I were walking around. To entertain myself, I imagined myself as Danny Phantom and imagined that I was rescuing a kid from falling the three floors down to the stingray tank (yes, I'm weird and obsessed). It actually passed the time away quite efficiently, and I thought of a way to write down my little daydream in a different way. So here you go- hope you enjoy my first fic!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or any of the related stuff. Butch Hartman does, the lucky bum.**

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Clockwork hovered in the air, his hands clasped behind his back, looking into the portal that would show him anything he wished to see in this time as well as others. On this particular day, he had a certain 14-year-old halfa in mind, and he thought to himself that he might give the boy a test to see if he was still on the right track since Clockwork had last seen him. He called to mind the image of the teenage superhero, and the portal's green swirls faded into an image of Danny Fenton with his two friends, Tucker and Sam, at a museum for a school trip. _What better place to test the boy than in a crowded area?_ Clockwork thought to himself, and chuckled as he pressed a button on his staff…

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Danny, Tucker, and Sam followed their class group around on their trip to the Museum of Amity Park. The museum was a tall, rather old building with four stories. Its main room took up most of the space as it was an open room with balconies instead of whole floors for all of the levels above the first.

Looking rather uninterestedly at different exhibits, the trio of friends half-listened to Mr. Lancer going on about the history of Amity Park during the World Wars. All three of them had been interested in the display on the ghosts of Amity Park, but at this rate it seemed like they would never move on.

"Man, I wanted to see what they had about you in the ghost part, but Lancer just won't shut up!" Tucker complained, and Sam nodded in agreement.

"I know, right?" the Goth replied, rolling her eyes. I'll bet they even have a life-sized manikin of you, Danny."

"And probably something from my parents about how Inviso-Bill is a danger to the community and should be 'ripped apart molecule by molecule' immediately," Danny added with a lopsided grin. "It'll be all we can do to keep from laughing when Lancer gives us a huge speech on the threat of ghosts in our town."

Sam glanced at her watch and groaned. "Yeah, if we ever get there! We've been here at the same display for an hour already, and there's still a lot more to go before we get to the one we wanna see."

Tucker and Danny made a face, and Tucker said dejectedly, "Bummer. But hey, at least we know more about 'Inviso-Bill' than anyone else in this entire town does, so I guess we don't need to see it."

"It's not about the info, Tuck, it's about entertainment," Sam pointed out. "It'll be funny to see how much they know about Danny… or don't know." She looked at Danny, expecting him to concur, but he was looking around anxiously, for his ghost sense had just gone off.

"No, not here!" the halfa mumbled fiercely under his breath. "Why can't I have a day off just once!" His bright blue eyes scanned the room for a place to go ghost, but the museum was too packed to even consider it. Even the restrooms were crowded, and the lines were long anyway.

After a moment of tense silence between the friends had gone by, Tucker ventured, "Maybe it's just a passing ghost, dude…"

"Yeah," Danny started, "maybe you're ri-" But he cut off abruptly as the terrified scream of a child came from two floors above them. Everyone in the museum, including the group of teenagers from Casper High, turned to look, and there was a collective gasp throughout the crowd; a small boy of no more than four was clinging to the chandelier in the middle of the room for dear life while wailing at the top of his lungs.

"How the heck did he get up there?" Sam asked as she fixed her lilac eyes in the direction of a woman –obviously the boy's mother- who was shrieking hysterically for someone to help her little son.

Tucker's gaped at the scene. "Dunno, but someone's got to do something, Danny!" He and Sam both looked pointedly at Danny, whose eyes widened as he caught their drift.

"No way! There's too many people around- someone'll see me for sure! And they'll get him without my help, you'll see."

"But they can't reach him," Sam said urgently. "Look!"

Sure enough, the museum volunteers were trying everything they could think of to get the boy down, but the chandelier was simply too far away and too high up in the air. Danny bit his lip hard.

"Dude, you've got to do something, and fast!" repeated Tucker. "That thing's gotta be slippery."

Another howl from the four-year-old brought their attention above once more, and every single person in the room watched in horror as the child's chubby hands slipped from their grasp and he plummeted toward the ground with an earsplitting screech.

Time seemed to come to a standstill for Danny as a clear choice was thrown at his feet; his own safety, or the life of a four-year-old boy.

He didn't hesitate.

Danny ran as fast as he could toward the still falling child and changed into his ghost form, earning himself a huge gasp and several alarmed shrieks from the crowd. He ignored them and shot down through the air, catching the boy just as he would have hit the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief, he hovered for a moment, then flew up to the fourth floor and handed the rescued youngster back to his mother. There was an awkward silence throughout the room, other than the sobs of joy from the boy's relieved mother. Suddenly, the silence was shattered by a heartfelt round of applause, the loudest part coming from the Casper High group. The populars started a chant that worked its way throughout the crowd: "Danny! Danny! Danny! Danny!"

Danny turned a bright shade of red and remained hovering by the railing of the fourth floor, out of the reach of the crowd, just in case. Embarrassed by the attention, he gave a shy smile and contemplated going intangible and flying out, but something stopped him. Perhaps it was the positive attention from the citizens of Amity Park for once that caused him to stay, or maybe it was the rare looks of admiration from his peers and teacher. But he began to hope that maybe, just maybe, his days of being Public Enemy Number One were finally coming to a close.

And little did he know, an unseen observer had been watching as well, and was smiling ever so slightly with a look in his eyes that may very well have been pride. Clockwork, in his eldest form, pushed a button on the top of his staff and said his trademark words: "Time out."

The scene at the museum halted at once, and Clockwork himself flew into the viewing portal beside of Danny, placing a familiar medallion around the teenage superhero's neck. Danny started in surprise and looked around, a little disoriented, but his expression of confusion instantly changed to a knowing one as he caught sight of the elder ghost that had helped him before, as well as the medallion around his neck.

"Clockwork… that explains how the kid got up there in the first place," Danny said quietly with a slight grin. "But why?"

The kindly ghost smiled his mysterious smile, morphing from his old man form into his child form. "I had to check up on you, to make sure you are still on the right track. Like I said before, things are different when you're looking at time as a parade rather than from above, and I thought I'd have a look from higher up."

Danny nodded, but his grin vanished as he thought of something. "They all know my secret now, though. Why would you let that happen?"

"That was part of the test to see just how far you'd go to save someone you don't even know. An interesting experiment, don't you think? It certainly had interesting results: a fourteen-year-old boy risking his identity and credibility to rescue a child he'd never even met before. A true hero if I've ever seen one."

Danny shuffled awkwardly at the praise, and Clockwork, shifting shapes into his adult form, continued: "Of course I will set everything right again if you wish it, but I believe I will leave the people at the museum with the memory of Danny Phantom rescuing a small boy from certain death, as a reward of sorts for continuing to do the right thing even in the face of personal risk. With that I will depart, and we'll meet again, Danny."

The wise, ancient ghost winked at Danny before morphing back into his old man form and disappearing. Danny could still hear his voice say from a distance, "Time in!"

The world seemed to kick back into motion, and Danny was right back where he had been; in the midst of a throng of people that was chanting his name, but he was in human form. For a split second, Danny thought in panic that the crowd still knew his secret identity, but he was relieved as they ignored the fourteen-year-old in the middle of them and searched for the ghost that had disappeared. Gradually the cheering died down, and people started to go about their business again, still buzzing with excitement.

Tucker and Sam pushed their way through the crowd to Danny and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Dude, how'd you do that?" they both asked together.

"Um, do what?" said Danny hesitantly; he still wasn't sure how much Clockwork had altered the scene.

"Going ghost and saving that little kid without even being seen in this bunch!" exclaimed Sam, and Danny had to smile.

"Oh, I had a little help from a friend…"

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And somewhere deep within the Ghost Zone, Clockwork smiled.

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**Yay, my first fic ever! Tell me what you think... pretty please? Constructive criticism is appreciated as well.**  



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